With the strength of two strong films on his director’s resume, actor Ben Affleck has found himself in the envious position to be getting offers for work on both sides of the camera. For the past couple of months, the two biggest projects he had been circling were the role of Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and directing the Iranian-hostage drama Argo. Since both projects were scheduled to shoot in the fall, the question was which one would the actor/director choose?
As you could probably guess from the headline, Affleck has decided to go with directing Argo. The film will be based on a Wired magazine magazine article on the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis titled “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran.” The article detailed how United States and Canadian intelligence services concocted a plan to rescue six diplomats from Tehran, Iran after Iranian militants seized control of the American Embassy taking its staff hostage.
Chris Terrio’s screenplay for the project landed at the number 9 position on last year’s Black List survey of the hottest unproduced screenplays currently circulating in Hollywood.
Via Deadline.
